"We're not critics. We're professional fan-girls." --- This blog is dedicated to movies and the entertainment industry. We use random selection to bring into light the best and worst of Netflix and off various columns highlighting new movies as well.

So, I never saw the episode where Detective Stabler left Law and Order: SVU (1999 -). Now I know
it's because he was transferred to homicide. It makes so much sense now.

Alright, Christopher Meloni (Underground, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Sin City: A
Dame to Kill For) isn’t actually playing Detective Stabler in this film,
but the character seems pretty damn similar according to the trailer. As an
avid fan of the Law and Order: SVU
series, I’m finding that incredibly difficult to ignore. I miss Meloni’s L&O character and I’ll happily watch
this to get a little dose of it.

Aside from that, the movie actually looks like there’s a
decent mystery going on in it. I’m kind of interested to see how Dave Bautista
(Spectre, Riddick, Guardians of the
Galaxy) does in a film like this as well.

When I saw the Indignation
trailer, I thought it was a thriller. I was surprised to find out it was a
drama. The music and the psychological mystery that seems to be portrayed in
the trailer really didn’t scream ‘drama’ to me.

Even so, I’m still interested. The idea of a psychological
drama can often be similar to a thriller and, at the very least, is rarely
boring.

Besides, Logan Lerman (Fury,
Noah, Gamer) hasn’t graced the big screen in roughly a year. He’s a great
actor and I’m looking forward to seeing him back in action again.

Undrafted has a
star-studded cast and a ridiculously silly script. The plot is a little less on
the silly side, though. It’s more along the lines of lost/broken dreams. It
feels like an old school 90s-movie type of dramedy and that makes me just…
super happy.

The cast is pretty amazing also. Even if you don’t like all
the actors, the huge list of names is difficult to ignore: Tyler Hoechlin (Hall Pass, Teen Wolf, Solstice), Aaron
Tveit (Graceland, Les Miserables, Gossip
Girl), Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl,
What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Twelve), James Belushi (The Whole Truth, The Secret Lives of Dorks,
The Defenders)… and more.

Movies about the bond between a father and a daughter always
make me feel a little bit bitter, but that doesn’t mean I can’t acknowledge
their worth.

The story shown in the trailer for Fathers and Daughters looks heartbreaking and beautiful all at the
same time. It’s difficult to not want to see the film. It’s got a seemingly
great story, great actors, and a great director, giving me nothing to really
complain about. For girls with an important relationship with their dads, it
should also have an incredible emotional response.

This looks like the movie Trust the Dice reviewed earlier in
the month: Antisocial (2013). As you
recall, I really enjoyed that movie although Cat didn’t so much. I think Cell has a very similar plot, but seeing
as it has an amazing cast and it’s based off a story by Stephen King (Haven, Under the Dome, Carrie), this
film will likely be better than Antisocial.
Or, at the very least, less polarized.

John Cusack (Drive
Hard, Grand Piano, The Frozen Ground) and Samuel L. Jackson (Chi-Raq, The Hateful Eight, Kite) make
for an interesting team and I can’t wait to see them do this film together.

14 – Lights Out (7/22)

Tag Line: You
were right to be afraid of the dark.

Production Company:
Atomic Monster, Grey Matter Productions, New Line Cinema

I was scared of the dark for a really long time. I don’t
just mean when I was a kid either. I was scared of the dark until my early
twenties when I forced myself to move passed it. This film exploits that
natural fear of darkness.

There are a lot of movies that exploit the fear of darkness,
but there’s something very interesting about this one. It seems like the mother
in the film is actually friends with, or working with, the apparition that’s
haunting her son and his… sister? Babysitter? The trailer isn’t clear about the
exact type of character it is that Teresa Palmer (Triple 9, The Choice, Cut Bank) is playing.

I think that if you’re going to see Lights Out you shouldn’t expect anything based off of brilliant
fright. It’ll likely be more about jump scares and the story than anything
else.

This movie is a remake of an animated movie, of the same
name, from 1989. That film was directed by Brian Cosgrove (Danger Mouse, The Magic Ball, On Christmas Eve) and the adaptation
was written by John Hambley (The Fool of
the World and the Flying Ship, Count Duckula, Minder). Both adaptations are
based on a book (also with the same name) written by Roald Dahl (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Matilda) that was published in 1982.

Ignoring the fact that I really do enjoy watching movies
based off books in order to compare and contrast the two, The BFG looks incredibly cute and full of fantasy. If I’d known
about the original version when I was younger, I definitely would have seen it.
As it is, I can’t wait to see both versions. I’ve been looking forward to this
film for a few months now.

There is nothing about this film that I don’t want to see.
It is right up Adam Devine’s (Modern
Family, Workaholics, Pitch Perfect) alley of funny and it’s going to be
awesome to see Zac Efron (Dirty Grandpa,
That Awkward Moment, The Lucky One) meet his level. I feel like they’d do
well together. I’ve also previously said I would follow Anna Kendrick (Get a Job, Into the Woods, Life After Beth)
anywhere. Yes, I even watched the crap Twilight
(2008-2012) movies because she was in them. I even think Aubrey Plaza (Life After Beth, Dirty Grandpa, Parks and
Recreation) has a unique style as well and she should work well with
Kendrick.

The story and script look hilarious. I feel like there’ll be
a lot of cringe-worthy scenes, but that there will be something smart behind
it. Especially since it’s got Jake Szymanski (7 Days in Hell, John Mulaney: New in Town, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), a
director associated with Saturday Night Live
and Funny or Die Presents, as
well as Andrew Jay Cohen (American
Storage, Acting with James Franco, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) and
Brendan O’Brien (American Storage, Acting
with James Franco, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising), writers both associated
with Neighbors.

I can’t tell if this movie reminds me more of District 13
from The Hunger Games books or
Erudite from the Divergent books. In
both cases, I’m specifically talking about the books, not the movies.

Either way, each series was an amazing read, which makes me
raise an eyebrow at this trailer.

The story is very dystopian and very heart wrenching, which
is what I like from my sci-fi and my romance respectively. I’m really looking
forward to this.

And for those of you sitting there scoffing about how
Kristen Stewart (Personal Shopper, Still
Alice, On the Road) is in it and how she’s got no range of emotion? This
movie is about a world where emotion is suppressed and not felt. So, even if
you’ve got no faith in her range, you can’t deny she could probably pull that
off.

I saw this movie was coming out and I was super excited. I
used to watch the TV show once upon a time. I’m talking about near the end of
the 90s. It was hilarious. Definitely on the slapsticky, crass side of humor
and I enjoy that kind of stuff. I was thrilled to see that they were using the
same actresses. I lost track of the show in the early 2000s, so I didn’t
realize it had gone on as long as it did, so it still feels nostalgic to me.

I’m a huge fan of this series. I think the idea of The Purge is incredibly unique. I
thought it when the first movie came out and I still think it. The plot line is
not something I’ve ever seen done before and I find it very difficult to
predict the way the movies are going to go.

The fact that James DeMonaco (Little New York, The Kill Point, Skinwalkers) chose to focus on an
election year as the setting of his chilling horror’s next installment is
probably coincidental, but it strikes me as an important parallel to the way
things are going during this current presidential election. There is so much
hate and violence that it practically feels like the purge is something that
could come upon us just to try and lessen the amount of suck that’s going
around.

I don’t give a fuck who you’re voting for. I’m tired of seeing
hate every single place I look. Try to remember you love your family and your
friend regardless of their political opinions or leanings. It seems like a lot
of people are forgetting…

Ok, the last entry was on the heavy side for this article,
luckily the only things heavy about this entry are the mammoths….

And how fucking adorable Scrat is.

I love that stupid, spastic, klutzy-ass squirrel. In this sequel
to the Ice Age films, it looks like
Scrat has become responsible for the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. It’s
looking more and more like the series is going to go through all the various
theories scientists have had over the years for how the dinosaurs died out.

Most of the incarnations of Tarzan that I have seen have
been funny or animated or both. It’ll be nice to see a serious version with
such an amazing cast in it.

I have some issues with the trailer, but that may just be
the way the trailer was made and have nothing to do with the plot or movie in
general. Trust the Dice has seen its fair share of epic trailers that turned
out to poorly represent the film.

I saw this trailer when it first came out in… I’m pretty
sure it was May. I was all over it then and I’m all over it now.

I have a very close friend that has kids and she does all
the cooking and the cleaning and she’s the head of the PTA and she participates
in every single thing… she’s super-mom and it looks fucking exhausting. I feel
like a movie like this is aimed at people like her. People who do absolutely
everything and don’t get quite as much appreciation or recognition as they
deserve.

It’s the movie version of every family sitcom ever made
where the mom goes on strike. Only it’s actually funny and features Mila Kunis
(Family Guy, Jupiter Ascending, The
Angriest Man in Brooklyn) alongside Kristen Bell (House of Lies, Zootopia, Frozen).

The moment I saw that Dave Franco (Neighbors, Now You See Me, Warm Bodies) was a romantic lead I was
immediately interested. The younger Franco brother does not get as much love as
I think he deserves. Nothing’s wrong with James Franco (Sausage Party, The Little Prince, King Cobra), but I’m a Dave girl
and he gets type-cast way too damn much. This is a good film for him to be in.

The plot is intensely interesting to me because, just going
by the trailer, I absolutely believe something like this could happen.

A game, online, maybe on the dark net, where watchers give
the players crazier and crazier orders until someone winds up dead? We have a
voyeuristic society and – if you’ve ever read the comments on a news article or
YouTube video you know – people are assholes, especially on the internet.

That makes this movie seem that much more frightening.

4 – Sharknado 4:
The 4th Awakens (7/31)

Tag Line: What
happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Unless what happens is this.

In the third installment of Sharknado, viewers were asked to vote on whether or not April died.
Now, in my research for this fourth film, I unfortunately got spoiled on the
answer. However, the trailer I’ve included above does NOT include the same
spoilers I came across. It is safe for viewing but I do not recommend you do
any googling of this film if you are looking forward to being surprised when it
airs.

That being said, I have no god damn reason why I love these
films. I just do. There’s no good excuse.

I’ll be having a viewing part at my house, again. I’m gonna
make my watermelon/fruit salad shark again, but I’m definitely not gonna be
stupid enough to try to cater it myself. Subway will be catering it and maybe
I’ll make some vegetables on the side because I’m old and try to make people I
care about eat green things.

I cannot stress this enough: The Killing Joke is a DARK story. I’ve seen a lot of bad reviews
given to DC movies because they’re dark and people weren’t expecting it. So,
I’m giving you all plenty of warning. THIS STORY IS DARK. There are triggers
everywhere. Death, sexual assault, torture, do not expect a laughing Avengers-type movie experience. If
that’s what you’re looking for, this film is NOT for you.

After re-reading the comic, I was worried about how they
were going to do certain scenes, but there was animation in the trailer that
showed they were going to do the scenes as close to the comic as humanly
possible, which means this will not be a soft rated R, it will be a hard rated
R.

This trailer makes me sad. I miss Anton Yelchin (Green Room, Broken Horses, The Driftless
Area). I have no idea what they’re gonna do for any other planned sequels
for this Star Trek series. Will they
end it? Will they replace Yelchin? Will they kill off Chekov? Too many
questions, not enough answers.

That being said, I’m a Trekkie. I’m not just a Trekkie, I’m
a Kirk-born Trekkie. Picard or Kirk? Kirk. I don’t even have to think about it.
I was raised on the first series. Needless to say, the reboot amuses me. I also
think the actors make amazing versions of the characters they were meant to
portray.

Know what else is cool? Simon Pegg (Paul, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End) has a writing credit for this
film. THAT is awesome. I can’t wait to see what he did with it.

Blurb from Netflix:
A young hustler gets sucked into the sordid but lucrative business of trolling
the streets of Los Angeles to film fires, car crashes -- and murder.

Selina’s Point of View:

This is one of the films I was really looking forward to
watching. I enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal’s (Donnie
Darko, Southpaw, End of Watch) work and I have heard nothing but good
things about Nightcrawler.
Unfortunately, the movie just didn’t resonate with me.

Normally, I watch my Monday film on Sunday night in order to
have the blog up and ready on time the next day. However, as most of you
probably know, the Game of Thrones (2011
-) season finale aired last night. Due to that, I was out with friends at a
viewing party until very late. (No spoilers, but it was epic. Two of my
theories were proven true and my friends and I had a lot to debate.)

Instead of watching the film late at night when I got home,
and trying to give it a fair shot while exhausted, I simply fired up Steam and
played some video games before bed. That way I was fresh, rested, and excited
to see the film Monday afternoon.

The actors were great. Rene Russo (Thor, Lethal Weapon 4, The Intern) and Jake Gyllenhaal are both
very good actors and you’d expect nothing but the best from them. I’m much less
familiar with Riz Ahmed (Day of the
Falcon, Rage, Centurion), but even he was absolutely believable. The script
and plot weren’t bad either. Even the music, costume design, and settings were
on point.

Still, I wasn’t feeling it.

I think my issue is that they tried to stretch what could
have been a 90 minute movie into a full two hours. That made certain scenes
seem too long or repetitive. I have no problem sitting through a long movie. I’ve
sat through three hour films without blinking an eye… but they have to need to
be that length. If a production company or a director is stretching scenes to
meet a certain time or is too conservative about cutting scenes that aren’t
necessary… it makes a film feel like it’s dragging.

Although I only had the one issue with Nightcrawler, it was enough to pull me out of it. I was bored for
the majority of the film. However, I think that was mostly personal opinion and
not professional.

Really, I believe the movie is a lot better than I thought
it was. I think my opinion is influenced by issues that probably shouldn’t
affect it. For that reason, I’m going to give this film a 50/50 score and urge
people to pay more attention to Cat’s opinion for this week.

Cat’s Point of View:

The first thing I have to say about this movie is… wow.

I am currently fighting the urge to go shower until my hot
water runs out, because this film left me feeling grimy. This wasn’t a
gore-fest by any means. I don’t feel dirty because of any salacious imagery. I
just feel like I’ve been dragged through the gritty sludge that occupies the
space where the main character’s morals and social consciousness should have
occupied.

Jake Gyllenhaal (Jarhead,
Source Code, Enemy) is an amazing actor. I am seriously flummoxed that he
didn’t get at least nominated for an Oscar with this one. I admire his ability
to chameleon into roles. He dropped a significant amount of weight for this
role, just as he put on a significant amount of muscle for his role as a boxer.
I barely even recognized him in Everest
(2015).

He did most of his own driving stunts in this film; and even
got so into the moment in an improvisation with one scene that he cut himself
and had to go to the hospital for 14 stitches. He barely even blinks for this
role – seriously. (He did it on purpose, too.)

The portrayal of Lou Bloom was eerie and actually made me
feel uncomfortable as I watched him. I’ve seen the character described as a
charming sociopath. I don’t know about that – the vibe I got from him was anything
but charm. However, there was a savant-like brilliance about the guy that was
near mesmerizing.

This is more than a crime thriller. This film looks at the
underbelly of news media, and brings up the heavy questions of not ‘can we’ but
‘should we’ air such images of the worst things imaginable. Is the
documentation and awareness of an event as important as the people it is
happening to?

Sure, it’s not exactly true-to-life in that people can’t
just walk into a newsroom like that off the streets. The movie is successful,
however, in suspending that disbelief.

I would highly recommend this film. I wouldn’t mind watching
it again, even. For those with a sensitive conscience, however, steel yourself
first – this one will make you squirm.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 95%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 85%

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 4.5/5

Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 2.5/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 3/5

Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score
– 4.5/5

P.S. This film was
very loosely based on the real-life career of Arthur “Weegee” Fellig.

P.S.2. There’s
some speculation that this film takes place in the same universe as Drive (2011), another movie reviewed by
Trust the Dice that starred Ryan Gosling (The
Nice Guys, Only God Forgives, Lars and the Real Girl), was directed by
Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher, Only God
Forgives, Valhalla Rising) and written by Hossein Amini (47 Ronin, Jude, Killshot). The basis for
this theory is a diner setting used in both movies that was filmed in the same
location and set up the same way. It’s worth noting, as part of this theory, that
both films have connections to the production company: Bold Films.